Netizens ridicule PTC survey results as it does not reflect ground sentiments

A survey conducted by the Public Transport Council (PTC) has shown that customer satisfaction with public transport is at the highest level it’s ever been in nine years. But given the recent breakdowns and flooding in October last year, a positive rise in commuter satisfaction rings a little hollow.

On Monday, February 5, the PTC released the results of a survey conducted last year, wherein people who responded to the survey also gave public transport 7.6 out of 10, which is higher than the previous score of 7.2 in 2015, in terms of mean satisfaction score.

As for MRT services’ satisfaction, PTC’s survey showed a core of 96 percent, while in 2015 it was 93.2 percent. Mean satisfaction with the MRT went up from 7.3 to 7.6.

The improvement in scores can reportedly be attributed to improved services with regards to waiting and travel time, as well as comfort. New units in 2016 in the North East and Circle Lines had de-loaded previously crowded trains, and made waiting shorter. Additionally, when Downtown Line 2 opened in December 2015, this made commuting more convenient, according to the PTC.

The Land Transport Authority’s improvement of rail reliability, and the operators’ actions in adding manpower, better maintenance and asset renewals on the East-West and North-South Lines.

The survey also showed increased satisfaction with bus services, from 90.7 percent to 96.7 percent. Mean satisfaction also improved, from 7.2 percent to 7.6 percent. This is due to higher customer satisfaction scores in service information and reliability, as well as customer service.

The PTC said that, “The improved results are likely attributable to several factors, including the transition to the Bus Contracting Model which has injected greater competition among the bus operators and hence motivated them to improve their services, and the adoption of performance standards for regularity of bus arrivals.

Improvements felt by commuters can also be attributed to service excellence initiatives put in place by the operators to give recognition to frontline staff who go the extra mile for commuters.”

Since 2006, this survey has even conducted by the PTC every year. In this most recent survey, 3,869 regular MRT and bus commuters from the ages of 15 and older were chosen at random. They were interviewed in October 2016 in different MRT stations, bus stops and stations during busy and off-peak hours of the day.

Many netizens were not only angered, outraged and astonished, but outright disbelieving of the survey results.

Others wondered if the survey were a joke, or perhaps a example of fake news

Another netizen posted a link asking the Transport Minister to resign

Others questioned how the survey was conducted

And still others called the news item reporting the survey results as “propaganda”

This is how they see things. Everything is hunky-dory. They are doing very well. I hope that they will be given a rude awakening at the next GE when they find themselves out of a job. Maybe they’ll declare an Emergency (say that the terrorists have infiltrated our minds) or martial law to maintain their grip on power.

Not all of us have seen the survey. However, surveys and survey results can be easily manipulated. Phrasing, for example. Compare: “How satisfied are you with the MRT services” vs “How satisfied are you with the frequency of the MRT services” will yield dramatically polar responses. When it comes to survey, reliability and validity also needs to be assessed. Numbers don’t lie, but statistics can be manipulated.

Maybe report is based on the number of times SMRT reported train fault publicly? (That’s why they don’t report at all now, only announce inside the train “due to track maintence”)
Maintence, not fault.

Towards the end of the report, it was reported that 5007 regular bus and MRT commuters, aged 15 years and above, were randomly selected and interviewed in October 2017.

The sample size is so insignificant compared to our total population of 5.61 million as of June 2017.

Granted that not all of them are regular commuters, and if we assume that only a third of the total population is regular commuters, the number of respondents (5007) selected for this survey represents only 0.003% of that one third.

Now how reliable is this survey and the satisfaction rate? This survey is not even worth reporting.

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